The Sunday Mail
Sekuru Friday Chisanyu Tracing African Roots —
OVER the years, there are people who have consistently made efforts to preserve our traditional practices and beliefs as African people.
They have maintained honour over their totems and close links with their clans in their respective geographical areas. Some elderly people have facilitated preservation of such.
Upholding traditional practices only lives when people value it, when they see the benefits and maintain the history. Even the young generations who are aware of what our ancestors did in the history of Zimbabwe also value this.
In Zimbabwe, African tradition will not die a natural death as we got our lndependence through the African Tradition Religion (ATR). Traditional healers and spirit mediums contributed in the liberation struggle.
For instance, spirit mediums camee up with strategies to defeat the white colonialists. However, the freedom to choosie religion within families is threatening our history, children are now being brought up under different beliefs.
Among other things, tradition had systems to secure marriages. Even though there are similar setups in church, there is too much confusion on how it’s done.
But the fact remains, even though you can change your religion, you cannot change your ancestral lineage. You cannot run away from it, neither will it dump you. To show just how powerful our tradition is, a woman can be impregnated here and relocate elsewhere. But when the child grows, he or she may fail to prosper in life.
That child will have to trace their roots back home. The moment he or she gets there, everything works out. That is why there is what I call dual membership in faiths.This is when you see people in church and then also meet them at traditional ceremonies.
Another worry is now on environmental degradation which is a threat to preservation of our traditional places that uphold our customs and values. Sacred shrines have been destroyed because people want land.
The desire to farm food is adding to destruction of forests, a source of our herbs. Fertilisers that are used by farmers are also causing pollution in rivers and land while trees are being destroyed.
In Hwedza, you can now see water flowing from the mountain into the river. If people in the area fail to carry out the required traditional rituals, eventually they will not find water in there.
Sacred places are at high risk of going extinct because of environmental degradation. Our health is at risk too because we need medicine from the trees that are being destroyed.
As traditional medical practitioners, our source of information is our ancestors. They inform us of many things at these sacred shrines. This cannot happen now due to degradation. In fact, the ancestors’ power is in the sacred places.
